Obama: 'The momentum against the Qadhafi regime has reached a tipping point...The people of Libya are showing that the universal pursuit of dignity and freedom is far stronger than the iron fist ...

FLASH: LONDON (AP) - Libyan charge d'affaires in London says rebels control 95 percent of Tripoli. … BRUSSELS (AP) - NATO: combat air patrols over Libya to continue until all pro-Gadhafi forces surrender.

--“Gaddafi tanks emerge after rebels sweep into Tripoli” – Reuters/Tripoli: “Libyan government tanks shelled parts of central Tripoli on Monday after rebels swept into the heart of the city and crowds took to the streets to celebrate what they saw as the end of Muammar Gaddafi's four decades in power. Tanks emerged from Gaddafi's stronghold in the centre of the Libyan capital and were firing shells, a rebel spokesman said. Sporadic gunfire could be heard as world leaders tried to assess how long Gaddafi's forces might hold on and how the fractious rebel alliance might run the oil-rich desert state.”

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--Andrea Mitchell, live during special coverage on MSNBC around 9:30 p.m.: “Seeing what is unfolding in front of our eyes right now in Libya is SUCH a validation, really, of the administration strategy and of the NATO strategy. Perhaps it took seven months, but it has happened. Something that many of us who’ve covered Gadhafi for all of these many decades – I actually did the report on ‘Nightly News’ … the night that Ronald Reagan took action and attacked his TENT in April of 1986. So there is just SO much history here.

“There were Libyan MiGs that shot down our planes and got into a dogfight back in August of 1981, at the beginning of the Reagan administration. … And … most profoundly, and tragically, the Pan Am flight [in 1988] that was obviously attacked, bombed by Libyan terrorism for which Moammar Gadhafi has never really answered. So we have seen such a trajectory of history here … just a moment to savor that, if Gadhafi really is out of power – even though the next steps are going to be very, very challenging.”

--25 YEARS LATER – Flashback: N.Y. Times banner, April 15, 1986, “U.S. JETS HIT ‘TERRORIST CENTERS’ IN LIBYA,” by Bernard Weinraub: “President Reagan, in a nationally broadcast speech, said the American forces had ‘succeeded’ in their mission of retaliating against Libya for what he termed the ‘reign of terror’ wage by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, against the United States. … Mr. Reagan said the American attack was a retaliation for what he asserted was the ‘direct’ Libyan role in the bombing on April 5 of a West Berlin discotheque frequented by American servicemen.”

--Statement of President Barack Obama, emailed at 10:11 p.m.: “Tonight, the momentum against the Qadhafi regime has reached a tipping point. Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant. The Qadhafi regime is showing signs of collapsing. The people of Libya are showing that the universal pursuit of dignity and freedom is far stronger than the iron fist of a dictator. … Moammar Qadhafi … needs to acknowledge the reality that he no longer controls Libya. … [T]he United States has recognized the Transitional National Council as the legitimate governing authority in Libya. … The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people.”

--BBC’s Matthew Price, from Tripoli last night, wearing a blue flak jacket emblazoned “MEDIA”: “I’m still in the hotel that the Libyan government – Colonel’s Gadhafi’s government – has obliged foreign journalists to stay in ever since this crisis began. We are still not able to get out of his hotel to go up the three miles – five kilometers or so – north from here to Green Square, because it is still under the control of government guards – pro-Gadhafi forces. … [I]t’s the place from which the Libyan information minister has been broadcasting his take on this conflict ever since it began. And it’s also the place which, more recently, Libyan state television has been broadcasting its nightly shows from, after its headquarters here in Tripoli – just down the road from here – were hit in a NATO airstrike. …

“It’s a five-star hotel and – remarkably, while there was a battle raging in the streets outside here – although most of staff have left this hotel, earlier in the evening, as the journalists here – around 35 of us, all grouped together – the guy from the kitchen came up and said, ‘Would you like to come and have dinner?’ So we ended up going down to the buffet and having dinner, as if everything was normal. It was Iftar dinner, of course. This is Ramadan, so it’s the breaking of the fast. And the fighting stopped during that, and then piped up again pretty soon after the Iftar meal had finished.”

--“Cameron cuts short holiday for Libya meeting” – AFP/London: “British Prime Minister David Cameron has cut short his holiday to attend a London security meeting on Libya on Monday as the military revealed they had pounded a Tripoli regime operations unit. ‘Last night the prime minister returned to London, cutting short his break in Cornwall. Later this morning he will chair a meeting of the NSC-L,’ the National Security Council on Libya, Downing Street said in a statement.”

BACHMANN -- “Bachmann battles Perry's shadow,” by Molly Ball in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.: “[O]ne week off [her Iowa straw poll] triumph, [Michele] Bachmann is feeling the effects of the latest GOP comet, Rick Perry. Her momentum … suddenly shows signs of ebbing amid questions of her electability. … At campaign rallies in South Carolina on Friday, she told audiences she’s already come from behind to win once so far. … ‘You may have heard last Saturday there was a little election in Iowa, and I was the No. 1 winner of the Iowa straw poll,’ she told an overheated crowd … in Myrtle Beach. ‘That victory was even more stunning than it was reported — I had only been a candidate for 49 days … and I had spent about half the time in Washington, D.C., fighting against’ raising the debt ceiling. … As most of the GOP establishment looks ahead to a Mitt Romney-Perry showdown — or pines for still more new entrants — Bachmann is intent on making sure Republicans remember she is a force to be reckoned with.” http://bit.ly/peWbyC

ROMNEY:

--Romney home project not shovel-ready,” by Alexander Burns: “A Mitt Romney campaign official emails to clarify that while the candidate has filed papers to expand his house in La Jolla, the project won't actually start while Romney is a candidate. ‘Construction will not begin until the permits have been obtained and the campaign is finished,’ the official said. The reason for the expansion, according to the official, is family: ‘They want to enlarge their two bedroom home because with five married sons and 16 grandchildren it is inadequate for their needs.’”

--FLASHBACK – “Romney to quadruple La Jolla home size,” by San Diego Union Tribune’s Christopher Cadelago: “Mitt Romney … is … working on plans to nearly quadruple the size of his $12 million oceanfront manse in La Jolla. Romney has filed an application with the city to bulldoze his 3,009-square-foot, single-story home … and replace it with a two-story, 11,062-square-foot structure. … The former governor of Massachusetts purchased the home three years ago. According to a description from the listing agent, the Spanish-style residence at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac is sophisticated and understated in its décor, ‘offering complete privacy and unsurpassed elegance.’ Tentative plans call for new retaining walls and a relocated driveway, but would retain the existing lap pool and spa” http://bit.ly/pk9DXo

PERRY:

--“Trial lawyers prep for war on Perry,” by Alex Burns: “Among litigators, there is no presidential candidate who inspires the same level of hatred – and fear – as Perry, an avowed opponent of the plaintiffs’ bar who has presided over several rounds of tort reform as governor. … That’s a potential financial boon to a president who has unsettled trial lawyers with his own rhetorical gestures in the direction of tort reform. … Democratic Houston trial lawyer Steve Mostyn – who, along with his wife, Amber, donated nearly $9 million to Texas candidates and party committees in the 2010 cycle – said he’s in the process of forming “some federal PACs” to take on Perry. That will likely include a federal super PAC that could take in the kind of massive donations that are permitted in Texas.” http://bit.ly/rir50Q

--NYMag, “Perry’s GOP Shock Treatment,” by John Heilemann: “Less appreciated is how significant a player Obama’s reelection team—along with its allied outside groups—may be in the Republican primaries. By spending millions of dollars on anti-Romney ads and pointing out the similarities of his Massachusetts health-care plan to Obamacare at every opportunity, they may be able to function effectively as a pro-Perry “super pac”—and one with greater resources and media reach than anything Perry and his allies can muster.” http://bit.ly/n4EacV

HUNTSMAN: “Democratic National Committee’s new surrogate,” by Alex Burns: “The Democratic National Committee just blasted out a greatest-hits reel from Huntsman's Sunday show appearance. … Huntsman has worked his way back into the 2012 conversation over the last week by attacking the right wing of his own party. What he hasn't done is show there's actually a Republican constituency that wants that kind of candidate.” http://bit.ly/pdxfjr

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Authors:

About The Author

Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.